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Tuesday, 31 December 2013

So its New Years Eve, and this is it, the moment I complete my second 365 project. You would think with it being my second I would know what I was letting myself in for, but apparently not.

Whilst this project has not been as well received as my previous Lego based effort, I feel it has been better for me, not necessarily as a photographer, but as a person. I have been able to use the blog to express myself and even took some photo's along the year.

With it being New Years eve its time to reflect on the year that was 2013, and look ahead to 2014. Its been a strange old year, no stranger than any other to be fair, but still its been a strange one. Plenty of highlights and plenty of low lights, so lets pick out a few.

Lets start with a low light, this year as a family we lost a very close and dear friend, and whilst we hadn't been in touch as we really ought to have the grief was still very real. We were quite lucky in the fact that we were all together as a family when we found out and were able to comfort each other and share our memories. So before the clock turns midnight I would like to raise a glass (probably the only one I will raise this evening) to Wyn Treeby. The world lost a true shining light, but Heaven is a better place now that you and Jim are reunited at last.
That was very much the lowest point of the year. Everything else has been pretty trivial in comparison, so lets not dwell on things that in the grand scheme of things are inconsequential in comparison.

Highlights for me have been continuing to see my awesome (if troublesome) daughter grow, and learn and generally consistently be the bane of my life. Sometimes she is so like me that I find it very frustrating as I don't want her to make the same mistakes I have in life, but I guess the more I push her away from those, the more she will gravitate towards them.

I have rediscovered my love (and hatred) of the game of golf, joining a course for the first time ever, and whilst I have not reached the goals I set at the start of the summer I have had a lot of fun. Particularly 6 and a half hours to get around Slaley with Lee Oakley and Darren Storey, including at one point allowing a threesome of senior members to play, and a special highlight for me was playing at Turnberry with my father. Even though it was the baby of the 2 courses available the quality of the course and the views were simply breathtaking. It helped that I played well and scored reasonably well too.

I also got to take Christine and Erin to their first big football match, well I say big, it was Scottish Third Division, but it was at Hampden and it was Rangers.

Whilst it is quite materialistic, the installation of our new kitchen has been an exciting and nerve racking journey this year too. Now its in we couldn't be happier with it.

Erin has completed more gradings at Dance, taken part in a summer show, and MPA's main show, completed an NUFC football training course, moved up a stage in swimming, got her 50m badge, finished the year getting less than 10 spellings incorrect all year in tests and continues to astound us with her general ability to turn her hand to anything.

The biggest hurdle to completing this challenge has been the change of shifts at work, meaning that I work 12 hour days, so finding time to take an interesting picture (which I haven't always managed) has been a real pain. I hope that I haven't bored you all too much.

Its been a good year for Paul Lynch Photography, getting to see some of my good friends get married, and being able to capture their days for them in a way that they loved has been a real pleasure. I've had a good variety of brides and grooms, and have been lucky enough that all of them have been a pleasure to work with. I wish you all the very best for 2014.

So onto the final picture of the year.

As I have said, its very difficult to balance everything and to find time for everything and everyone, but there is nothing more important than family or friends......

Not even phone calls, or Simpsons tapped out updates.

So here s to 2014, make of it what you will, I'm sure it will be just as strange as 2013!

Thats it from me, I've done 2, I will never ever attempt a 365 again, so i hope you have enjoyed it.

Monday, 30 December 2013

So today has consisted of travelling to and from work, looking at a pc screen for 11 and a half hours and having some breakfast and lunch. Not a whole lot of opportunity to take pictures.

This is the best I was able to do, I'm always taken by how spooky this piece of road looks at night, don't worry this image was not taken while driving. I stopped after making sure there was nothing behind or in front of me. Safety first.

Saturday, 28 December 2013

well it had to happen at some point and if it was going to happen of course it wS going to happen when I was 200 miles from home.

While packing the car on Tuesday my daughter had a little bit of a meltdown, the outcome of which was that in my rush I packed my camera bag without packing it. Upon arrival I made the choice to not use my camera until my paid job today, as I knew I hadn't packed my battery charger. What I didn't realise was that whilst I had my lenses, spare memory cards and my flash, I did not have my camera body!

Luckily for me the for me the group I was due to be working for are a very understanding group of people, and u have kept the gig for future despite not being able to make today.

So again today's picture is an iPhone one and this time it's of my dad's dog Reaba.

She is a dopey thing!

Back home tomorrow, fingers crossed for better weather than today and yesterday.

Friday, 27 December 2013

Which despite the sales was pretty similar to a ghost town. The weather has been far from Christmassy today and I am sooooo tired which is not a good combination. But Erin and Christine managed to get themselves some bargains so I suppose it is all good.

Thursday, 26 December 2013

It's always a pleasure to watch my team but today they were absolutely terrible. Unable to string passes together, unable to pose any sort of real threat to the opposition goal, and unable to continue their winning run.

Still like a senile old uncle that frequently craps his pants, you can't help but still love them.

Saturday, 21 December 2013

Only 10 days to go after today, and I have to say it can't come soon enough.

That said this evening I got a chance to practice one area of photography I would love to do more, taking pictures of live bands.

Its always easier when bands give you good access and have reasonable lighting, its a massive bonus when they play some decent music too.

So this evening I headed over to Sunderland to check out F.A.B. a 4 piece who play songs from the 60's onwards. Its easy to see that the 60's is their real inspiration but they entertained a crowd of Christmas revellers with a good mix from the last 5 decades, including some great sing along party songs.

Anyway todays picture of the day is one of 2 of the lead singers who shared the limelight of the evening (and caught the eye of one of the revellers)

More images from the set can be found at http://paullynch.smugmug.com/Music/FAB-Quay-Exchange

Friday, 20 December 2013

Last round of golf of the year today, it was a bright breezy day with some showers, so a bit of everything really.

Pretty much like my round, it was a real mixed bag, but finished off well.

After finally getting past a troublesome three ball I finished par, par, par birdie. Parring two of my most troublesome holes on the course in the process. Shot of the round was this 6 iron from 167 yards on the 18th to set up my only birdie of the day.

I sank the putt which was a relief as I had missed a very similar putt on the 16th.

There have been a lot of celebrity deaths recently and a lot of life celebrations. It's often easy to forget amongst all the hubbub of daily life that these people who make the news are people's mothers / fathers / husbands / wives / children/ loved ones. We don't know them personally yet we show our reapects.

This year has been one of loss for my family too, we lost a beloved family friend which I mentioned a while ago, and whilst we celebrate her life we can take solace in the fact that she is reunited with her husband, in his own right an absolutely outstanding human being who filled his life with adventures and happiness.

I now have something that I can treasure to celebrate knowing that they are reunited again, and remember the times I shared with them and my own family growing up.

Saturday, 14 December 2013

Well the last dance class, of this year anyway. We got to pop along and watch what the kids have been learning since the show in November. It's all about having a bit of fun and working towards exams from now till mid February.

This is Erin and her dance teacher Jane.

Erin hangs on every word Jane says, I must ask her her secret some time!

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

The other day I got a random text from Lee at work. Now for those that don't know Lee he is a bit of a jack the lad, he likes a bit of banter and a bit of a joke, so when he told me I had won a prize at work I wasn't sure if I should believe him. But I stuck with it as you never quite know.

I checked my work email and there was nothing there, so I checked the work social site and sure enough I had win a prize. I couldn't remember what the prize was, only that I had been a bit cheeky with my entry.

So anyway long story short, here is me with my new TV for the bedroom!

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Kind of... Blyth loves nothing more than cheap stuff and a new pubs so the buzz of a weatherspoons opening has just been too much for some people. I had 20 minutes spare so popped in to see what the fuss was all about.

To be honest they have done a cracking job of turning the old theatre / cinema into a pub. It looks very nice and clean and well strange as it sounds for Bkyth, classy.

Apologies I thought I had posted this last night but apparently I forgot.

Yesterday I went to play golf, at a place I haven't played for at least 8 years, and I was blown away by the change in the way the course looked. Not because the layout has changed or because they have made massive changes to the course, no simply because the course has matured so much, mainly with the size of the trees now lining the fairways.

Let's not dwell on how I played (it was a bit pants) but focus on something else.

Darren has an electric golf trolley, that he can set to go off up to 30m away from him. He has been slowly but surely getting more confident with this feature until the 16th at Burgham yesterday, when this happened....

She is called Wyn, those that know me well will know why, needless to say golf is something I enjoy very much, and I wanted to have something to remember a dear friend by. She didn't play golf not was she particularly fond of it but she did do a lot of thinking, and pondering, and was alway able to offer just the right advice if you should ask for it.

I do a lot of my best thinking on the golf course, and as I've said I enjoy the tranquility and the reflection time it gives me, so I thought it would be great to be able to remember this great person in those moments when I am out on the course.

Say hello to my new golf club

She is a 60 degree lob wedge designed to help me out of a bit of trouble and set me back on a nice smooth path.

Friday, 6 December 2013

Today has been very topsy turvy, Its had some great bits and some very much not so great bits, but thats what life is like. You have to learn to make the most of what it throws at you and hope that you'll get a bit of luck along the way.

This guy in todays photo, took the opportunity of getting some great surf in, despite the warnings to the contrary. The sea was rough but not too bad, and they seemed to be all out in pairs to keep an eye on each other.

Anyway, onto the picture.....

I took quite a few photo's today, but this was my personal favourite, to see more check out my personal Facebook page.

Thursday, 5 December 2013

I was rudely awoken this morning as I imagine most of you were by rain battering against my window (hopefully it battering against my window didn't wake you though). And then endured the wind and piercing rain whilst taking Erin to school.

After seeing reports that we would experience raging waves I popped down to the beach, and was very disappointed in the tiny waves that were having the tops whipped off them by the gusting wind. Undaunted I snapped off a couple of frames and thought, ach that will do.

Fast forward 7 hours and I read on my twitter timeline that the River Blyth has overflowed at the quay, and I am heading past it so pop by and fire off these pics. This is the highest I have ever seen the River Blyth in my 30 odd years here.

And I again headed back to the beach to see if any of it existed, I'm not sure if you can tell by this image just how high the tide is but if you know Blyth at all, this was by the bandstand and the waves were reaching (not quite crashing against) the sea wall, there was no beach!

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Christine told me about this Christmas Tree Festival on Monday so I decided to pop down and check it out this evening while the girls were both off dancing.

The idea is that local business have all decorated tree's, I'm not sure what happens with them at the end of the week, I do know they are voting for what is people's favourite tree. The tree's are supposed to represent the businesses. so there is a garage who have decorated the tree with toy cars, a travel agent who has decorated their tree with luggage tags, and the usual decorated trees from the local brownies groups.

Its quite nice when you walk in but I can't help but feel it should have had more of a point to it. Maybe with the tree's going to hospitals, or old folks homes at the end of the week, (although they possibly have amazing tree's anyway)

Anyway, here is a little group of pictures from the whole shebang.

Today has served as a reminder of how great people never get forgotten even once they are gone, and I have been left feeling truly humbled, but in a very nice way.

Monday, 2 December 2013

I'm not going to lie, and you probably already know this but this blog and this project have been a real struggle. I don't feel I have grown as a photographer, nor do I feel that it has really been worthwhile.

Hopefully I will look back on it with greater fondness in the future than I look at it now.

Needless to say I will never ever attempt this project again, this is my second, and will definitely be my last.